As we get closer to the door at the end, something odd catches my attention. A rushing sound that grows louder with every step. While walking behind Jimmy, who seems unaffected by the house, I try to place it. It’s like the rush of air that precedes a train down in the subway, or the bustling noise that whips past the window when racing down the highway. We’re not low enough in the building for either of those sounds to be accurate, but it’s the only thing I can think of by the time we reach the door.
The sound’s much louder.
“The fuck is that?” Jimmy mutters, finally acknowledging the sound and making me feel a little less crazy. He grabs the doorknob and thrusts it down, then shoves open the door in one smooth movement.
Chaos greets us.
Water pours down from the ceiling like a waterfall, absolutely drenching the sole person in the room who is trying to shield herself with one hand while battling with a toppling stack of boxes with the other. She’s fighting a losing battle as the water soaks into the cardboard, increasing the instability of the tower. Countless other boxes scatter across the floor, waterlogged and crumbling under the constant pressure of the water pouring from above.
Jimmy and I stare in mixed horror at the sight and I step back as a roll of water brushes against my shoe. Floating a foot away is a necklace, and the severity of the situation dawns on me. A burst pipe pouring directly into a stock room instantly loses thiscompany thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, depending on what they keep in here.
“Cal?” Jimmy yells over the deafening noise. “What the fuck did you do?”
A woman with jet-black hair plastered to her face and neck like streaks of black ink spins on the spot. Her striking, icy-blue eyes immediately blaze with the ignition of fury and she yells back, “Me? Are you fucking serious? Why didn’t you answer your phone! I called and I called! What the hell is wrong with you?”
I’d seen Jimmy with his phone in his hand plenty of times, clearly ignoring her calls. Is this Cal?
“How dare you speak to me like that? I’m a busy man and that doesn’t answer my question! The fuck have you done?”
“Me?” she screeches at the top of her lungs, spluttering as the force of the water increases.
Concern immediately swells in my chest. This is not safe.
“It was like this when I got here! The first thing I did was try to save the boxes, and then part of the ceiling caved in and all this water crashed in. This is you! This is your fault! If you’d kept up with the nightly security patrols like I told you to, then this would have been found hours ago!”
“You can’t blame me!”
“Yes, I can!” she yells, utterly enraged. “Look at this place! This water’s been leaking in for hours! All our stock, all the computers, the files, and everything are ruined, Jimmy. Ruined!”
“Sorry to interrupt, but I don’t think this is—” As I speak, intent on encouraging the woman to abandon the stock she’s trying to protect and save herself, a deafening snap lances overhead. A deep, large crack spreads its way across the ceiling directly over her, crossing several other cracks in the ceiling.
I act before I think, leaping up onto the metal desk and throwing myself toward the woman as she stumbles under the force of the water. Our bodies slam together as I loop one arm around her waist, keeping her pinned against me as we stumble back through the ankle-deep water and collide with the back wall.
A mere second after I collide with her, the ceiling splits open and several chunks of ceiling tile and weakened splinters of beam crash down to the floor where Cal was just standing.
Her hot breath warms my neck as she pants against me, her hands clutching at my arms and her eyes wide as she stares at the spot she stood mere seconds ago. If I hadn’t reached her, she’d be under that debris and there’s no telling how severe her injuries would be.
“Cal! You’re destroying my building!” Jimmy screeches from the doorway, his hands pulling at his thinning hair.
“How many times!” the woman screams back, her long nails digging into my skin through my jacket as the freezing cold water soaks into my socks and up my pants leg. “It’sCalliope!”
As she yells her name over the torrent of rushing water, she pushes her hair back from her face, and a sudden tension in my chest strikes me. My breath catches in my throat when she throws me a glance and says, “Thanks.”
Jet-black hair, golden skin, stunning icy-blue eyes, and dark brows sharper than any blade strike familiarity in my heart, momentarily taking my breath away.
Iknowher.
6
CALLIOPE
An hour after walking into the utter disaster of a store room, I sit in the break room wrapped in several towels, dressed in Victoria’s dry gym clothes, and nursing a cup of terrible coffee thats only purpose is to warm me up.
What thefuck.
What a terrible start to the New Year. I can’t even count how much stock we lost. I overheard Jimmy mentioning something about drying it all out, but all that water damage and the risk of rust or water staining to the jewelry and stones, never mind the risk of illness from wherever all that water came from… It’s enough to make my head spin.
And somehow, worse than the burst pipe, the water damage, and the lost stock is the fact that I was saved by Elijah.
